Shortly after my last post, a super typhoon hit my mother's homeland of the Philippines. There was a need for midwives just like myself who were trained in assisting childbirth without technology in an out of hospital environment. I did two one-month trips, the first being only three weeks after the typhoon and I spent Christmas and New Years away from my children. The second was during the month of March. I spent my time there helping deliver babies, averaging 3 births a day including breeches and twins! After my trips to the Philippines, I came home exhausted and emotionally vulnerable and then and our family (of six) moved into a new home and it took a few months to get settled.
One Sunday in early June, we received a call for my daughter's best friend. She was told that morning that her older brother had been shot and killed by the local police department because they mistakenly believed he was armed. I am broken-hearted over what is happening to our youth. His name was Victor Villalpondo and he was 16 years old.
Only a week later, a dear friend who was like a mother to my husband ended up in the long-term ICU. She just passed away last Tuesday. She was a 67 year old woman who had lived 48 of them as a quadriplegic, and the last 7 months intubated with a tracheotomy tube and on a ventilator. For the last seven months I participated closely in supporting her family and caring for her in the hospital and at home. She passed on last week and I've been sewing ever since. Its keeping me company while I get used to not having Linda's physical comfort so on my mind. We will be burying her this morning. Her name was Linda Pedro.
I finally got my sewing room up and running again after a family move back to our old home after three years in town. I started sewing again during the kids school break and haven't stopped since. I put together our Pizza Box Challenge blocks, made some drawstring bags this time quilted and Pendelton.
I also set out to finally mend our oldest son's bed quilt. This was the first bed size quilt I made in 2004 when our oldest was 10. He's been missing it since I took it from him last year to repair some worn areas and replace the frayed binding. He finally got to take it home with him when he left after Christmas along with his new peace crane pillow.
I had to sort through so many unfinished projects and reconstruct some of the cut fabric and pieces to make sense of what I was up to in my old sewing room. I ended up with a table of things to finish and got to work mostly finishing up the quickest stuff first. Pillows and pillowcases, bags, etc. Now I am finally back to piecing, quilting, and designing. I am working on Mateo's No Nukes quilt and I started a foundation paper piecing flow that I am getting a little addicted to. Plus once you get your scraps color-sorted and accessible it's hard not to start a new one right away!
Thanks for letting me tell my story. I am so grateful for life today and happy to be back on this blog.
